Asian and Asian American Studies Program Assessment (2006)
Assessment Report
1. Introduction
In accord with AAASP’s assessment plan, Program assessment is based upon the fall semester Asian and Asian American Major Seminar (AAAS 496), an interdisciplinary course that essentially serves as the “capstone” for AAAS majors and minors nearing the end of their academic careers at Binghamton University, and which last fall was taught by Professor Robert Ji-Song Ku, who also authored this report. Depending on the faculty member teaching the course, the seminar is design to change its theme and subject each time that it is offered. The theme that Professor Ku selected was “Nationalisms, Sexualities, and Asian Diasporas,” and the aim of the course was to build a theoretical repetoire for understanding contemporary Asian migration, taking into consideration questions of race, gender, sexuality, class, and citizenship. Of particular concern was the configuration of diasporic identities in the face of the disciplining practices of nation-states. In other words, how do Asians living in a global world with fluid and multiple citizenships and identities negotiate the complex demands made by nations and nationalist apparatuses? The assigned readings included materials drawn from history, sociology, anthropology, and literary studies, as well as materials that aided in the synthesis of Asian studies, Asian American studies, and Asian diasporic studies, an explicitly stated goal of the Asian and Asian American Studies Program at Binghamton University.
The seminar consisted of 15 students, with a roughly equal number of majors and minors. This relatively small class size afforded me with a wonderful opportunity to engage each student more directly and closely and also provided ample class time for student presentations and for students to interact more directly with one another.
This also meant that substantive time could be devoted to the assigned final projects. The assignment was designed for students to put into “practice” many of the goals of the Asian and Asian American studies curriculum, e.g. to encourage work that is interdisciplinary, comparative, or global in methodology and theory, as well as work that is cross-national, where concerns of Asianists and Asian Americanists are in productive dialogue. Specifically, the final project called for students to first identify a particular object, idea, institution, or cultural practice that is commonly understood as being “Asian,” having qualities of “Asianness,” or is presumed to have its “origins” in Asia but now exists globally or transnationally. The task was for students to “narrate” the transformation of something reputed to be “Asian” as it has migrated from one specific location to another, not just spatially and temporally, but also figuratively, symbolically, and imaginatively. (An alternative option was to narrate a “reverse” movement of something that is reputedly “non-Asian” to Asia.) In formulating their narratives, the students were required to substantively utilize the ideas, concepts, theories, and analytical tools offered not only by the seminar’s reading assignments, but those that they had acquired while completing their requirements for the AAAS major (or minor). The assignment also called for an annotated bibliography to be submitted by the midterm of the semester, as well as a formal proposal outlining the goals, methods, and thesis of the final project to be handed in three weeks prior to the end of the semester. The final two seminar sessions were devoted to 15-minute oral presentations – with visual aid – of the final project by every student. The final project had be at least 10 pages of texts, plus any additional multimedia materials that might be necessary (15 pages of text if no multimedia materials were to be included).
As hoped, the students came up with many intriguing, provocative, thoughtful, and clever ideas in terms of subject matter. Some notable examples included critical appraisals of rice, tea, manga (Japanese comic books), feminism, American fast food, cheongsam (Chinese-style dress), Japanese Brazilians, martial arts, Asian cinema, the geisha, hip-hop music, and Buddhism.
Based on these final projects and an exit survey of students’ self reflection conducted via email at the conclusion of the course, this report seeks to gauge the degree to which the students preparing to graduate with a degree (or minor) in Asian and Asian American studies have successfully realized the learning outcomes detailed in the Assessment Plan of the Asian and Asian American Studies Program.
2. Seminar Final Projects
According to the Assessment Plan, at graduation, all AAAS majors ought to meet three specific goals. The first of these is a general understanding of Asian histories, languages, and societies and/or cultures within Asia as geographically defined. Predictably, the final projects reflected a wide range of understanding, from accomplished to satisfactory to adequate. While some projects discussed in detail the Asian context from whence their particular subject originated (e.g. rice, geisha, manga, Buddhism, martial arts), others touched on it only briefly (e.g. tea, feminism, Asian cinema). The manga project, for instance, obviously required the student to have a rather sophisticated understanding of Japanese in order to read Japanese comics in the original language, while the cinema project focused on Asian films with English subtitles or dubbing that did not require the student to necessarily know any of the languages concerned: Cantonese, Mandarin, and Japanese.
The second goal is an understanding of Asian diasporas, with particular focus on Asians of the Americas. The level of understanding here was noticeably in greater evidence compared to the first goal. A great majority of the papers focused significantly on the diasporic or contemporary manifestation of the subjects at hand as opposed to its historical beginnings. This is to be expected, as the assignment as articulated emphasized the “transformative” aspect of the subjects, urging students to theorize about the nature of cultural change vis-à-vis migratory history. A notable exception was the cheongsam project, where the student did a wonderful job in tracing the changes of this style of dress over centuries within China as well as touching upon contemporary American fashion trends that borrows from Chinese design.
The third goal of developing the ability to rely on interdisciplinary and comparative histories, languages, societies and/or cultures as geographically defined was perhaps the best met of the three stated goals. Most projects, if not all, were interdisciplinary in approach; roughly half utilized multi-media sources, including film, television, fashion, comic books, cuisine, music, and the World Wide Web. This, no doubt, had much to do with the interdisciplinary objectives of the seminar in general, as well as reflecting the multidisciplinary makeup of the students, and the minors in particular.
3. Self Reflection Survey
At the conclusion of the seminar, students were asked via email to respond to a self-reflection survey that might aid the Asian and Asian American Studies Program in better assessing its strengths and weaknesses. The results are as follows:
Number of students in the seminar / Number of survey respondents15 / 7
Question 1: Are you a major or Minor
Major / Minor
3 / 4
Question 2: If a major, which tract?
Asian American / Asian Comparative / Asian Specialization
1 / 1 / 1
Question 3A: What do you find to be the strengths of the AAASP faculty members?
· The friendliness, availability and willingness to listen and help
· Professors are very knowledgeable on the subjects that they teach.
· The faculty is very well rounded and they seem to know everything!
· Of the professors I have had, I have not really found any weaknesses. All are very kind and willing to interact with their students outside the class. All the professors I have had also inspired greater interest in AAAS.
· So far the professors for AAASP has been great. I find them to know their material especially well. I'm extremely glad that most of the teaching faculty are real professors and not graduate students, unlike in my major where I've had a lot graduate students teaching courses, which I don’t appreciate
· All the faculty members I have encountered have been very knowledgeable and interesting.
· There has been great variance in my professors thus far. All have been very generous with their time and have been open to a wide range of options.
Question 3B: What do you find to be the weaknesses of the AAASP faculty members?
· Most professors failed to make the course interesting. Some professors required students to complete certain work without giving proper guidelines.
· I'm not so sure because I haven't really interacted with most of the faculty members.
· I can’t think of weaknesses.
· It’s hard to diagnose any weaknesses as a general trend.
Question 4A: What do you find to be the strengths of the courses and other curricular elements of the AAASP?
· The topics addressed were very interesting and they give new awareness to some issues.
· Courses are rich in specific Asian cultures. The program has lots of courses concentrating on Chinese and Japanese cultures.
· The courses are well organized and they bring many concepts/ideas that were unknown before.
· All of the courses have much to do with the interest I had in Asia. Whether it be literature, culture, or history, all of it was included in the courses I took.
· The courses are very diverse even when the concentration is on Asian Americans. I find myself wanting to sign up to more than what I can because all the courses sound so interesting.
· The curriculum for the minor program has been very well organized, giving a good broad overview and understanding of the field.
· I have nothing but good things to say about my courses in my AAAS minor. All of the classes I enrolled in were taken because I had a distinct interest in the subject matter, and I can honestly say I have learned a sizeable amount from all of them. My AAAS classes were my fun classes, and, as a minor, it’s hard to criticize any curricular elements of the AAASP.
Question 4B: What do you find to be the weaknesses of the courses and other curricular elements of the AAASP?
· Some of the materials were too dry / too “textbook-y”
· I’d personally would like to see more courses which focus on Chinese American studies and themes.
· I found no weaknesses in the greatest variety of course selections.
Question 5A: What do you find to be the strengths of the AAASP in terms of the services and activities that it provides?
· Service is A+. I wish I could have participated in more activities.
· All the faculty have been very helpful and there are many speakers from time to time. Would like to see more workshops promoting study abroad in Asian countries.
· The services and activities are small but I feel that is due to the size of the program.
· I do receive many emails about AAASP inviting guest speakers for forums and such.
Question 5B: What do you find to be the weaknesses of the AAASP in terms of the services and activities that it provides?
· I am not too aware of any services or activities that the program provides.
· As a minor, I’m not too familiar with the program.
· There haven’t been many activities sponsored by the program to my knowledge. I’d like to see more events which are Asian American oriented.
Question 6: Please provide any additional comments, suggestions, and critique that might help in making AAASP a more successful program
· Make Asian American courses more readily available every semester. In fact, try to make courses that can be used toward more than one tract.
· As far as I know, the AAASP is already a successful program. The only suggestion I can think of is to have better access to faculty members.
· Enlarging and further diversifying the course offerings would be beneficial. Greater promotion about the program would also be helpful to attract more students.
· I just wish I didn’t have to graduate so that I could take more classes – well, minus the work.
4. Conclusion
Given the small number of students surveyed, it is difficult to establish any firm conclusions in the assessment of the AAASP’s graduating seniors. Adding to the difficulty is relying on the data provided by a single seminar that consisted of both majors and minors in AAAS. Be that as it may, some reasonable assessments can be drawn from the work submitted and survey completed by these students. These include:
· In terms of learning outcomes, the program has been effective in instilling in its students the three main goals of its curriculum. In particular, the synthesis of Asian studies, Asian American studies, and Asian diasporic studies has been highly successful. Evidence points to students understanding that much can be gained by examining questions of Asia via multiple points of reference, be it geographic, intellectual, disciplinary, cultural, or linguistic.
· At the same time, however, the program’s curriculum could do more in terms of diversifying its subject areas, to build and balance out many underrepresented areas of studies (e.g. Asian American and Asian comparative studies) and make required courses more readily available for students regardless of their major tract or disciplinary leanings.
· Without exception, students find the AAAS faculty to be of excellent quality, more helpful and accessible than usual, and much respected and admired.
· Programmatically, there can be improvements in communicating with the students. Many are often confused or unaware of activities and services the AAASP provides. The program could also do a better job in encouraging student involvement in its affairs, in giving the students a greater sense of ownership of the program, be it in the area of curriculum or extra-curricular activities.
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